Mary Travis Bassett

Mary Travis Bassett is an American physician and public health researcher. Bassett was the 17th Health Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, serving from September 2021 to December 2022. From 2014 to 2018, she was the commissioner of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Bassett is the former Director of the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University and the FXB Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. She is also an associate professor of clinical epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health.

Early life and education Bassett grew up in New York City and attended the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. Her parents were Dr. Emmett W. Bassett, a chemist with a PhD in dairy technology from the Tuskegee Institute and the first African American investigator in the field, and Priscilla Bassett, a white librarian and activist. Bassett identifies as African American. Bassett received her B.A. in history and science from Harvard University in 1974, her M.D. from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1979, and her MPH in Health Services (Health Policy Research) from the University of Washington in 1985. She completed her medical residency at Harlem Hospital Center.

Career Bassett lived in Zimbabwe from 1985 to 2002, during which time she served on the medical faculty of the University of Zimbabwe. She was appointed deputy commissioner of Health Promotion and Disease Prevention at the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene in 2002. she helped lead the city's response to the Ebola virus cases in the United States that were first reported in the fall of 2014. She also addressed New Yorkers regarding outbreaks of Legionnaires' disease in their city. In February 2015, she wrote a perspective piece in the New England Journal of Medicine regarding the adverse health effects of racial discrimination against African Americans.

In 2016, Bassett was awarded the Frank A. Calderone Prize by the Mailman School of Public Health. This prize was established in 1986, and is the most prestigious honor in the field of public health in the United States.

In 2017, Bassett was elected to become a member of the National Academy of Medicine. She was succeeded as New York City Health Commissioner by Oxiris Barbot in 2018. In September 2018, Bassett became director of the François-Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights (FXB Center) at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

New York State Health Commissioner (2021–2023) In September 2021, New York Governor Kathy Hochul appointed Bassett as the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Health, succeeding Howard Zucker. She assumed office on 1 December 2021, taking a leave of absence from Harvard.

Shortly after taking office, Bassett issued a memo regarding the distribution of scarce COVID-19 therapeutics. The guidance noted that "non-white race or Hispanic/Latino ethnicity should be considered a risk factor" for severe illness. This inclusion sparked legal challenges, including a lawsuit by Cornell Law Professor William A. Jacobson arguing the guidance constituted racial discrimination. The case was ultimately dismissed for lack of standing, though the court noted that a patient who had actually been denied treatment based on the guidance might have had a successful claim.

Bassett resigned from the position effective 1 January 2023, stating her desire to return to her work at Harvard.

Return to Harvard (2023–2025) Bassett returned to her role as Director of the FXB Center at Harvard in January 2023. During this period, the Center expanded its "Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights." Under Bassett's leadership, the program focused on the health impacts of the situation in Palestine, in particular working together with Birzeit University to study the impact of the Israeli occupation on early childhood health in the West Bank.

The Center's programming faced scrutiny. In April 2025, a report by Harvard's Presidential Task Force on Antisemitism and Anti-Israeli Bias criticized the FXB Center, alleging that some of its academic programming presented a "demonizing view" of Israel. Former Harvard leader Larry Summers opposed the cooperation with Birzeit University.

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